2/17/09

DENTON/DALLAS/HOUSTON — Texas Woman’s University
— already the state’s largest educator of new
nurses — will be able to graduate even more nurses to
alleviate the nursing shortage thanks to a grant from the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB).

TWU will use $378,167
in Professional Nursing Shortage Reduction Program grant funds
from the THECB to hire additional nursing faculty and provide
stipends to retain current faculty.

“One of the
factors contributing to the state and national nursing shortage
is the lack of qualified faculty available to educate students
who want to become nurses,” said Dr. Pat Holden-Huchton,
dean of the TWU College of Nursing. “These funds will
allow TWU to help address this shortage by increasing our
ability to attract highly-qualified faculty in order to graduate
more new nurses to serve the citizens of Texas.”

The 80th Texas
Legislature appropriated funds to the THECB in fiscal year
2007 for the Professional Nursing Shortage Reduction Program.
These funds are being distributed to the state’s public
and private nursing programs that show an increase in the
total number of nursing graduates at the associate, baccalaureate,
master’s and doctoral degree level.